Masao Okazaki Fleet

[evil_genius_180]

I've begun work on yet another Star Trek mesh. *waits for stunned gasps to subside before continuing* I've decided that I have to model some of Masao Okazaki's designs. So, I've decided to start with the Paris-class Light Cruiser. I will, of course, be doing a slightly more detailed version than the schematics call for but I won't be straying from the schematic (one view or another) in the overall design of the ship. It's a great design and I've been thinking of modeling it for a while.

I'm building the ship in trueSpace 4 because I'm more familiar with it and I know what buttons do what. However, I am rendering in trueSpace 7 and I will attempt to texture and light the ship in tS 7 also. I figure that's the best way to become familiar with that program. I *think* I managed to get it to mostly stop freezing for no reason by adding a gig of RAM on Monday but time will tell.

Anywho, here's what I have so far:



Obviously, I'm still blocking stuff in and adding grid lines. I already have way more grid lines than the schematics call for and I have more to add still. I also changed the configuration of the lines on the top and bottom of the saucer but that was mostly to avoid mesh errors because of how I built that part of the ship (and building it the way I did made cutting grid lines a lot easier.)

So, that's where I am now. Also on tap for the future are the Avenger & Predator-class Destroyers and the Klingon D-6 Cruiser and possibly more.

[Lee]

Looks like a great start EG.

Sounds excellent EG! I can't see your images though because our firewall won't allow access to photobucket.

I look forward to seeing your work progress.

UA

[gmd3d]

Nice work again .. Not surprised you modelling Trek .. your so darn good at it

[evil_genius_180]

Thanks a lot everyone.

Originally Posted by UrbanArmitage

Sounds excellent EG! I can't see your images though because our firewall won't allow access to photobucket.

That sucks. Are you at work or at home having this problem?

[Darrell Lawrence]

Excellent!

Fit right in with here: http://www.3dgladiators.net/tos/

Along with other Pre-TOS/TOS era stuff too

[evil_genius_180]

The Paris-class is pre-TOS. According to Masao's very detailed background, they were entered into service in 2196 and the last one was built in 2230, or somewhere around there. One thing I like about this ship is that it doesn't conflict with the time line established on Enterprise, as some of his other stuff does.

I got a few more things added today. The navigational deflector and its housing, which is a little more rounded than the pretty straight cylinder that the schematics called for. I also added the sensor domes, some windows (not on the schematics but that's not how I roll) and some RCS thrusters.

[evil_genius_180]

This is basically one of those proof of concept things. Since my goal is to texture and light the Paris-class in trueSpace 7, I decided to try texturing a ship in that version of trueSpace. Since I have a couple of them, I chose one of my Constitution-class meshes for this. After a few hours of tweaking things, I got my settings how I wanted them and I'm pretty happy with the results.

Here's the ship with the old tS 4 settings, rendered in tS 7:



And here's the ship after I retextured it in tS 7:



As I said, I'm happy with the results (even if that's not the "correct" look for a Connie) and I'm happy to report that texturing the Paris-class in tS 7 will be a breeze. And we now return you to your regularly scheduled WIP.

[evil_genius_180]

I added some more little odds and ends to the top of the saucer. I don't know what the purpose of the round things just forward of the impulse housing are but they were on the schematics, so I added them. Though I did have to add some detail, since they were just plain round things on the schematic. I also added a few more windows and some access panels (or some crap like that.) I just have a few more things to add to the saucer top and then I'm going to finish the saucer bottom and work on the engineering section. (which has to be partially rebuilt to fix some issues that only I know are there but that are bugging me)

Pretty cool mesh.

[evil_genius_180]

Thanks.

More stuff. The cigar-shaped laser cannons were a bit of a pill because I went through several false starts before finally getting a configuration I liked without a lot of mesh errors. Since neither the schematic nor the 3D images at the Starfleet Museum show the ship's ventral area, I claimed artistic license on some of the stuff there. I still have a bit of work to do on the saucer, including the docking ports that I keep trying to forget and some more work on the large laser cannons.

[evil_genius_180]

I partially rebuilt the laser cannons to get rid of some smoothing errors around the cuts. (Don't worry if you missed them but don't expect me to point them out. ) I also added the bottom laser turret and finally remembered those docking ports.



This should just about do it for the saucer, aside from the connection hard points for connecting equipment pods and some other stuff on the ventral rear (to break up the plainness of the area) but I'll do that stuff later. I'm going to move on to the engineering section now.

[gmd3d]

Mega work .. I am looking at some older designs i worked on to get fired up again .. but go go at it like a duck to water

Well, I was going to point out all the flaws in your mesh...but... well, I had no idea they were there and your work is 100x better then mine. LOL!



I am currently animating a Trek related short film - perhaps this ship will make an appearance in it.

[evil_genius_180]

Thanks a lot guys. I fully intend to release this thing when it's done (and I might actually remember to do it this time. )

More stuff.



This mesh is really zipping right along faster than I thought it would. It's probably because stuff doesn't take a fraction of the time to do on my new PC that it did on my old one. I don't see any reason (barring something that keeps me from modeling or just good old fashioned laziness) why I shouldn't have the modeling done by Monday, Tuesday at the latest.

Originally Posted by evil_genius_180

Thanks a lot everyone.



That sucks. Are you at work or at home having this problem?

Yeah it does suck, a lot! I use my work connection to access the 'net 99% of the time. I have a connection through my mobile which I use at home only when I need something specific because it costs me the equivalent of about 30 US cents a minute I'm workning on the problem though.

UA

[evil_genius_180]

Wow, that's expensive. I see why you get online at work. Unfortunately, I think a lot of peoples' work firewalls block Photobucket. Can you see uploaded images here?

I just realized I forgot to post this morning's update when I was on at about 2:00 A.M., so here it is. Since I don't feel like going to Photobucket anyway and you're having problems seeing the Photobucket images, I'm uploading them to the site. (probably about as fast as going to Photobucket anyway.)

Basically, I didn't want to go to bed this morning with "naked" struts, so I got a small start on the nacelles.

[evil_genius_180]

This is basically it for modeling on this ship. The nacelles still need a little something or two but I haven't yet decided what it is, so I'm moving on to texturing.

Originally Posted by evil_genius_180

Wow, that's expensive. I see why you get online at work. Unfortunately, I think a lot of peoples' work firewalls block Photobucket. Can you see uploaded images here?

I just realized I forgot to post this morning's update when I was on at about 2:00 A.M., so here it is. Since I don't feel like going to Photobucket anyway and you're having problems seeing the Photobucket images, I'm uploading them to the site. (probably about as fast as going to Photobucket anyway.)

Thanks EG, I can see those images perfectly. Your model is really looking great! She's definately coming together very nicely. Great work.

If you don't mind me asking here, how did you do the detailing lines on the saucer? Did you carve those into the mesh or are they procedural surfaces? They really look good.

UA

[evil_genius_180]

Thanks. I used the booleans subtract tool to do those. So, I guess you could say they're carved in.

[evil_genius_180]

I just need to texture the windows (always a joy ) and then it's on to the lighting rig.

Originally Posted by evil_genius_180

I used the booleans subtract tool to do those. So, I guess you could say they're carved in.

Hehe, that's what I meant, sorry. Thanks for the info.

UA

[evil_genius_180]

NP, dude. I know there are other ways to do grid lines but I've always used the good ol' booleans tool. It rarely lets me down.

[evil_genius_180]

Self illumination rig is complete:



And the gratuitous finished mesh renders:

Glad to hear things are progressing well EG.

Any chance of uploading one or two of those gratuitous finished mesh renders to the site?

UA

[evil_genius_180]

I think I can dot a little better than that.

I rendered the ship orbiting a couple Class-M planets last night. (the others were just against a starfield with more generic lighting) I'll probably do at least one showing the underside later and upload it as well. And then there's also the model itself, which I'll probably upload to the downloads section later also.

[General Phoenix]

She's beautiful, EG. You work pretty fast, too - less than 2 weeks to finish!

[Thomas P]

First, congratulations on an excellent (and, yes, quickly done) rendition of this design.

I like the 'contemporary' style addition of the recessed panels and nicely done greeble elements. You have quite the fleet now! Always nice to see such great work done with truespace

The TS7 renders came out very nicely.

[evil_genius_180]

Thanks a lot guys. I blame the speed on the new computer. It amazes me how much faster stuff goes now. (for one thing, not waiting 20 to 30 minutes for a WIP render to finish is very nice)

And, yes, I'm quite happy with the rendering in tS 7. I just wish those guys at Caligari would pull their heads out of where they don't belong and fix that issue that every version of tS has where it won't load textures that are larger than 4000 x 4000. That's no good for planets these days.

Yeah, yeah, blame it all on technology.

Thanks for posting those beauty shots. They look really good, especially the view from the front. I see that you even modelled in the cabins behind the windows. You really did put this ship together well, and very fast. Well done EG.

UA